CONSISTINTLY PARSIMONIOUS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15976, 19 November 1919, Page 4

CONSISTINTLY PARSIMONIOUS.

The policy of assisting all soldiers to get on the land who wish, to become small farmers is one which will gain public favour during the political campaign, This should bo a country of small farmers—not of largo estates such as ilie Massey regime favours—and the soldiers should bo assisted on the road to comparative prosperity by placing them on small farms, as the State owes them a debt that can never bo adequately paid. However, the soldiers will look in vain to Mr Massey or Sir James Allen for anything practical in the way of encouragement to got on the land. The Southland News points out that when a land policy was squeezed out of- the reluctant Mr Massey it was not one that would accelerate settlement, but one which dealt with future aggregation, being limited to this at the PrimeMinister’s own instigation. In four years only three thousand soldiers have been placed on the land. At the same rate of progress—and under Reform there is no promise of speeding up— it would take twenty years to settle (he fifteen thouand it is reasonable to hope should become farmers. Already many who patiently sought sections in every part of New Zealand have sickened of continual disappointment, and in this way the demand may gradually diminish, until thev official statement that it has been satisfied will bear the appearance of truth. What have the soldiers received from the Reform Government but studied discouragement? If anyone doubts this let him carefully investigate the course of events since the men began to return to Ihe Dominion; let him accept the verdict of the Soldiers’ Associations established in the towns, or the opinions of relatives upon whom the burden of sacrifice has fallen with always perceptible, if sometimes unequal, weight. Have the men received the treatment that was promised them? Has anyone ever received anything promised by the Reformers?